R. GELUYKENS & K. PELSMAEKERS, EDS.
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DISCOURSE IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS
R. GELUYKENS & K. PELSMAEKERS, EDS.
The papers in this collection are all concerned with a rather special
type of discourse: they deal with either spoken or written language
which was produced in what could be called an "institutional",
professional context.
Despite the growing interest within discourse pragmatics for language
produced within an institutional framework, existing publications tend
to concentrate either on one specific type of institutional setting
(e.g. business negotiations) or on one specific research tradition
(e.g. conversation analysis).
The present book is rather different in concept, in that the subject
matter is approached from a variety of functional research traditions
and methods, and in doing so cuts right across the spoken-written
distinction. First of all, the contributors scrutinize a variety of
discourse types, such as business interaction, business letters,
classroom talk, political interviews, press releases, and
pharmacist-patient interaction. Secondly, they show a variety of
research traditions and methods at work, including systemic-functional
linguistics, conversation analysis, social semiotics, ethnography, and
cognitive grammar. Thirdly, since institutional communication takes
place in various modes of speaking and writing, the present collection
includes work on discourse in such varied modes as face-to-face
interaction, media interviews, group interaction, news reports, and
letters.
This collection also offers an introductory overview of the field, as
well as a selective bibliography of past research on institutional
discourse, subdivided into seven major categories: business, medical,
legal, classroom, media, political, and scientific/acedemic. Elements
of all seven domains can, in various forms, be found in the present
volume.
ISBN 3 89586 613 X.
LINCOM Studies in Prgamatics 03.
Ca. 330pp. EUR 70.56 / USD 86.50 / DM 138
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INTERLANGUAGE PRAGMATICS
Compliment Reponses by Learners of
Japanese and English as a Second Language
JUNKO BABA
University of South Carolina, Columbia
The purpose of this study is to identify what sociolinguistic
variables are problematic for learners of Japanese and English as
second languages and how those variables may affect the types of
Compliment Responses (Crs) the learners choose in conversation.
To investigate interlanguage CRs, this study compares the learner data
with baseline data taken from native Japanese and American English
speakers. The sociolinguistic variables studied were the targets
(Family versus Self) and topics (External versus Internal) of
compliments. The variables were combined into four target-topic
categories: Family External, Family Internal, Self External, and Self
Internal. A total of 60 informants participated in the study, of
which 12 were American native speakers of English (AAs), 17 were
native speakers of Japanese (JJs), 14 were Japanese learners of
English (ESLs); and 17 were American learners of Japanese (JSLs). Each
informants had a 30- to 60-minute conversation session with a female
friend, or conversation leader, who was a native speaker of the
language in which the conversation was conducted. The data was
analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. All data was
tape-recorded, narrowly transcribed, and coded by politeness type. The
politeness types are those from Brown and Levinson's theory of
politeness: Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, Off-Record, and
Do-not-Do-FTA (Face Threatening Act). In politeness type, the
compliment responses of the learners were found to approximate those
of the native speakers of the target languages. A detailed examination
of the sociolinguistic variables of CRs and the dispreferredness of
certain discourse structures, however, revealed that the learners use
pragmatic transfer from their L1 and overgeneralize politeness types
of their L2. The result of a chi-square test revealed that the use of
Negative Politeness in Family External CRs was most significantly
different across groups, whereas its use in Self External CRs was
found to be the most similar across groups. The family variable in
CRs was the most difficult for the learner groups, especially for the
JSLs, who are not familiar with using Negative Politeness when
responding to compliments about their family members.
The study also investigated the correlation between politeness type
and the intensity of the compliments and the correlation between
politeness type and the different sequences of complements and their
responses. Only among AAs did Positive Politeness CRs correlate with
the intensity of the compliments, while ESLs seemed to be bothered by
increased intensity.
ISBN 3 89586 622 9.
LINCOM Studies in Pragmatics 04.
Ca. 300pp. EUR 57.27 / USD 70 / DM 112
Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date or send us a cheque. Prices in this information include
shipment worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is
available with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.
LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX +4989
3148909;
http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.